Police chief ousted in Hebron; Juanita Gumble vows fight to get job back

A motion to “accept the resignation of Hebron Police Chief Juanita Gumble and dismiss her immediately” resulted in a contentious village board meeting on Monday night, with a room full of residents speaking out in support of the chief.

Gumble told village leaders she did not want to leave the department and had not resigned.

Sill, the agenda item ultimately passed, to the dismay of Gumble and those in attendance.

The first female police chief in Hebron and the second to accept the position in the past two years, Gumble said she had not written a formal resignation letter. She said she intends to “negotiate for her position back with an attorney.”

“I appreciate the residents,” she said. “That was very heartfelt, and the things I’ve done have been documented. They know I care. I go to them. I have contact with them. They can ask me for anything, even though I’m not here. They can still call me. That’s who I am. That’s not a position. You cannot take that away from me.”

After spending almost two hours in closed session, the Hebron Village Board voted, 4-2, in favor of Gumble’s dismissal. Trustees Mark Shepherd, Mark Mogan, Candace Knaack and Shirlee Correll voted for Gumble’s dismissal, while Trustees Dawn Milarski and Josh Stevens opposed it.

After the vote, the crowd erupted, with numerous residents shouting.

“Unbelievable!” “Shame on you!” “You work for us!” “Are you kidding?” “You people are evil.” One resident pointed at Village President Robert Shelton and used an expletive.

The motion appeared late last week on an updated village board agenda after a disagreement between Shelton and Gumble. Shelton said both at the meeting and in a July 18 email to trustees that Gumble verbally gave her two weeks’ notice July 9.

“I accepted such resignation. I notified the Board of same by e-mail and cc’d her on such email – which was met by her silence for the last several days. She did not rebut my account of what occurred,” according to Shelton’s email. “Today, I understand, she sent an email to the Treasurer maintaining that she did not resign. I do not have trust in our Chief in light of this.”

In that email, Shelton – who in February praised Gumble for “efficiently using resources” – also said he did not agree with Gumble’s “use of police department resources.”

“I understand from her that she is deeply resentful over communications and inquiries by certain Board members despite her maintaining that she welcomes feedback and questions,” he wrote.

Gumble said she told Shelton, in an emotional phone call, that she would resign contingent upon certain actions by village leaders.

When asked to speak before the vote, she said, “I would like to add that I apologized for what I said being contingent and that the problem had been fixed.”

Gumble said she rarely has taken vacation days since becoming chief on Jan. 30, 2023. So the several days she took off in July to go see her 85-year-old father, who lives nearly five hours away in Wisconsin, were important to her. He had raised her as a single father, she said.

“That is my rock,” she said.

While on that vacation, she said she received numerous communications from the village, despite having told village leaders that Hebron Police Sgt. Bruce Biancalana would serve as their point of contact in her absence. Frustrated, she spoke with Shelton.

“I was upset,” she said. “All I wanted to do was spend three vacation days with my father.”

She said she told Shelton something along the lines of, “If you cannot make them talk to Sgt. Biancalana in my absence, I would have to return and write my resignation.”

“It was contingent upon making the emails and phone calls stop, and [Shelton] twisted it,” she said.

Upon her return to Hebron, she said she went to Village Hall on her day off and asked to speak with Shelton again.

She told him she simply had sought his help so she could visit with her father in peace. “I don’t get to see him very often, and I haven’t had much personal time since taking this job and it just became too much for me,” she said she told him. “I may not have handled it appropriately in speaking with you.”

He told her at that time that she had given her verbal resignation and he had accepted it. The next thing she knew, the village board’s Monday night agenda had been updated with the new motion.

Seeing the updated agenda, at least 50 residents filled the village hall room, doorway and hallway in support of Gumble. Several told stories about the ways in which the chief has helped them.

Hebron resident Matthew Donovan brought an apple as a symbol of the apples and oranges Gumble would bring to his family when they struggled to afford food.

“She helped me start a road of healing,” he said. “She gave me back my faith and trust in people. … We need her. We want her. I’m just one person, but I know she’s helped out hundreds in town.”

Residents called Gumble selfless, devoted and tireless, and praised her efforts to improve communication between the police department and the community, including the school district.

“Never have I felt like a police chief has our individual backs,” said Dawn Higgins, a resident of Hebron since 1986. “She’s the best thing that’s happened to Hebron.”

Gumble teared up several times throughout the meeting amid the outpouring of support.

“I have never experienced anything like that, ever,” she said. “I know I’m responsible to them, not [Shelton].”

Several residents questioned how the board could vote on accepting a resignation if there wasn’t one. Some criticized Shelton’s leadership, saying “micromanaging” has driven out most village employees since his election in 2021.

“Communication is a key factor in any valuable working environment,” resident Pat Peterson said. “President Shelton, I believe you do it ‘my way or the highway.’ Communication is very unhealthy in this workplace environment.”

Shelton was elected in 2021 on a platform of cutting the police department’s size. When elected, he slashed the $430,000-plus police budget by $100,000 and reduced the number of officers. At the time, there were six full-time sworn officers and six part-timers.

With Gumble at the helm, there was four full-timers and four part-timers. One of the full-timers is a school liaison, a nonpolice position.

Gumble was appointed a month after longtime officer Ramtin Sabet was named Hebron’s new police chief on Dec. 27, 2022. Sabet resigned to accept a job in Florida.

In her roughly year and a half as chief, Gumble secured the department’s evidence room to meet required state standards, ensured officers have proper equipment and added the full-time community resource officer/school liaison. She also implemented online police training programs and a tracking system for written warnings by officers. She introduced a “Drug Take Back Program” with a kiosk at the Hebron Village Hall.

In February, when Gumble completed her first year on the job, village leaders praised her as an asset to Hebron.

At the time, Shelton was quoted as saying Gumble “has kept costs in line. She has been excellent in efficiently using resources she has.”